It was late and Kole was winding down for the night. He had just changed into his black, satin pajamas, and had thrown a robe over his shoulders. He liked to keep his star piece in the pocket of his robe, even when he slept. However, the two new star pieces he now possessed were too hard to always keep on his body, so he kept them locked away inside of a hidden safe behind an inconspicuous picture.

He was lying in his bed now, wearing reading glasses, with a cup of decaffeinated tea on his bedside table, and a book in his lap. If a clio that knew him well saw him like this they would most likely feel disturbed. How could such an evil, horrible clio, look so normal?

Briar stood on his shoulder, reading along with him. Kole took a sip of his tea before turning to the next page of his book.

Since Kole had enacted his coup in Adhbhar and essentially taken over, things had only gotten worse. Not long after Joel had left Adbhbar, Redfern Academy had been attacked by Kole's men, and dozens of unsettled children had been kidnapped. And things were only going to keep getting worse, unless someone did something about it.

Joel, this is insane, Amp kept telling him. We are going to die.

Maybe. Probably. But goddammit. Having been raised to be one of Kole's sycophantic followers, Joel had never done a good, decent, selfless thing in his life until he met Arizona. She made him realize everything he had been taught, everything he had ever known, was a lie. He had lived his entire life being wrong. Maybe at least he could die trying to do what was right.

Before going off on this mission, Joel had stopped at his childhood home. He had managed to convince his mother to leave Deilig, but his father had refused. Disowned Joel on the spot, once he heard everything. He supposed he should have expected that.

And now here he was. During the last three days of spying he had managed to learn where Kole kept his own star piece, and the two stolen ones. Unfortunately, the answer to that was "with him at all times." His best hope was to wait until the overloridian fell asleep and then ambush him. It was an insane, suicidal plan. But when the alternative plan was "do nothing while an insane tyrant destroys lives all across Amelia," he would go with the insane, suicidal plan.

He waited until late at night, almost 3am, before finally making his move. Sneaking into the mansion wasn't difficult--he'd been raised to spy on overloridians, after all. He found Kole's bedroom and had his shadow slide under the door to unlock it. Once the door was open he peered inside and saw Kole, apparently asleep in bed. Silently, Joel had his daemon's shadow turn into a constrictor while his own shadow became a solid humanoid, able to hold a knife. He had one shot at this. In an instant, the shadow-snake lunged to coil around the overloridian, while the shadow-clio lunged to stab him.

Kole was dreaming sweetly of crying children and dying clio when something roused him from his slumber. It sounded like his bedroom door was being unlocked, but he wasn't sure if he was just half asleep and hearing things from his dream, or just being paranoid. He barely opened one eye and saw a snake-like shape looming over him and the silhouette of a man behind it. Acting fast, he solidified his own shadow into the shape of a shield to protect himself from the strike of the snake. He didn't need the lights on in his room to realize he was being attacked by a clio.

"Who the fuck is out there?!" He roared while he fought off the snake shadow.

Fuck! Joel had been this close, but Kole had somehow woken up a split second before his strike and deflected it. Of fucking course it wouldn't be that easy. As Kole grappled with his shadow in the room, Joel hastily retreated down the hall and around a corner. He didn't think he could beat the overloridian in a one-on-one fight, but if he could lure him out of the room, away from the star pieces...maybe there'd be a chance to evade Kole and double-back later to get them. Joel knew the odds of that plan succeeding were even lower than that of his ambush plan, but he didn't exactly have much time to come up with something better.

The sound of footsteps fleeing echoed down the hallway and the shadows followed suit. Kole sat in his bed for about .3 seconds before throwing off the blanket and jumping out of it. He immediately started to follow the footsteps until he heard Briar's voice hiss at him to grab the star pieces from his safe.

He wouldn't be able to harm this clio that was so obviously Deilig with his own Eilemaiden. Suddenly more infuriated than he had been he ripped the painting down from the wall and quickly opened the safe that was concealed behind it. Kole shivered with the power that surged through him when his finger tips touched the stones. He wrapped his hand around them both and shoved them into the pocket of his robe. He felt the electricity vibrate through his body as he harnessed the powers of the Solas star piece, and little lighting bolts leapt from his fingers.

Kole grinned evilly and ran from his bedroom, following the sound of footsteps down the hall. The failed assassin was farther up ahead, but Kole had no doubt he'd be able to catch this clio. He did after all know these halls better than anybody.

It wasn't long before Joel heard footsteps behind him, catching up fast. He sped up himself, taking a sharp corner down a hall that he knew lead to an exit. His best hope to lose Kole and then double-back was to get outside and into the woods. He saw the door he was searching for up ahead and actually got a bit hopeful that this might actually work. All he had to do was reach it..!

Of course it was too late. Kole had already caught up to the intruder. His solid shadow reached out and grabbed the intruders shoulder and pulled back to stop him. When intruder whirled around from the force of the shadow, Kole's eyebrows rose.

Joel?!

His surprised look immediately turned into one of rage and he snarled, "What do you think you are doing?!"

Joel wasn't far from his exit when a strong hand gripped him roughly by the shoulder and pulled him back with force. He was now face-to-face with a shocked and furious Kole.

Kolecakes wrote:"What do you think you are doing?!"

Joel glared back at Kole, his shadows rising from the ground. They wouldn't be able to hurt Kole, but he could still use them to defend himself. He knew he didn't have much of a chance to survive now, but he had prepared himself for that. "I guess you're not as smart of a leader as you thought you were," he replied. "I've been working against you for months now."

Joel's glare hardened and he actually began to take a step towards Kole when he called Arizona a whore, but was forced to dive out of the way when Kole sent a bolt of lightning towards him. So he has at least one star piece with him now. Not that Joel could even get close to try and grab it, with electricity surging dangerously around Kole.

As Joel dodged, he sent both his shadows forward to distract Kole. One took the form of a huge bear, blocking Kole's path to Joel. Joel made another attempt towards the exit, this time managing to fling the door open and get outside.

The distraction worked, and Kole momentarily lost his focus and formed his own shadow into a bear to counter Joel's. As the two shadows fought, Kole bypassed them and followed Joel out the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Kole shouted after his clio. Now that they were outside of him mansion, he used this to his advantage. With the electricity now subdued, Kole harnessed the powers of the Adhbhar star piece, and flung a small boulder at Joel. With a direct hit between the shoulders, Kole was able to catch up to his intruder.

Kole grabbed Joel's shoulder, spun him around and pushed him to the ground. He began kicking him in the ribs and stomach, then straddled his body and started throwing punches to Joel's head and face.

He stopped punching the man beneath him momentarily, to hold down his shoulder with his left hand, and sharp pointed sword from dirt and rocks took shape on Kole's free hand, pointed dangerously close to the space between Joel's ears.

"I think I might cut off your head and send it to Arizona," he mocked. "And then afterwards I think I'll carve my name into her soft, delicate skin to punish her."

Joel made it several yards before a boulder slammed into his back, allowing Kole to get his hands on him. The next thing he knew he was on the ground, while blow after blow rained down on him. He was struck so many times he almost didn't realize when Kole had stopped, he'd been knocked so senseless. His head throbbed and his ears were ringing and he could taste coppery blood running down the back of his throat. He probably would have just laid there and accepted the final blow, if not for what Kole said next.

Kolefefe wrote:"I think I might cut off your head and send it to Arizona. And then afterwards I think I'll carve my name into her soft, delicate skin to punish her."

Rage seared through Joel, momentarily replacing his pain. "Fuck you," he spat, his voice muffled slightly from his injuries. With a decisive movement, he jabbed his foot up, kicking Kole in the gut as hard as possible. He wriggled free and punched Kole's face so hard he was pretty sure he'd broken his hand.

While Joel was worried about a broken hand, Kole was only slightly worried of a broken nose. While the kick was a little awkward because of the angle, it did the trick and Kole had the wind knocked out of him momentarily. And now his nose was bleeding.

Distracted by the blood gushing from his nostrils, and the pain radiating from the bridge of his nose, Kole didn't realize that his little intruder was getting away. Briar hastily pecked at her clio's head, trying to get his attention, but it was too late.

When Kole finally regained his composure Joel was nowhere to be seen. He saw red. The rage that boiled in his body would probably kill a normal man. He roared so loudly that birds sleeping in the trees flew out from their roosts.

Nobody got away from Kole and lived to tell the tale, until now. He was going to teach this treacherous clio what happens when they mess with their Overloridian, and his next stop would be Adhbhar.

Though Joel had momentarily considered continuing to fight for the star pieces, he was just too injured. His ears were still ringing, and as his rage subsided, his pain and dizziness came flooding back. Kole was a few feet away, holding his nose in shock. Joel used what little was left of his energy to sprint off into the woods, before collapsing in what he hoped would be a good enough hiding place. Whether or not it was, he wasn't going anywhere for a while.

He had failed. But he was still alive. There was still a chance...he could try again...He could still try to find some way, any way, to help Ari. Even if it meant not being lucky enough to escape with his life next time.